Airbus opens second pilot training centre in S’pore

The 9,250-square-metre Airbus Asia Training Centre (AATC) in Singapore is a 55:45 joint venture with Singapore Airlines (SIA). It follows a training centre in Beijing and is Airbus’s fourth in the world after Toulouse and Miami.

Didier Lux, head of customer services, said Airbus predicted that the Asia-Pacific region would lead demand for new aircraft in the coming years, with in-service fleets growing from about 5,600 aircraft today to 14,000 in two decades. 

This will see the active flight-crew population employed by airlines in the region increase from just over 65,000 to almost 170,000.

Airbus has engineering and maintenance training centres in Hamburg and Bangalore as well as third-party service providers offering its training courses at their facilities.

The new centre offers type rating and recurrent training courses for all in-production Airbus types.

It will be Airbus’s largest flight-crew training facility, with eight full-flight simulators, comprising three A350 XWBs, one A380, two A330s and two A320s. It will have six fixed cockpit training devices and extensive classroom facilities, with the capacity to offer courses for more than 10,000 trainees per year.

“We are extremely pleased to inaugurate, in partnership with Singapore Airlines, the latest addition to our global training network,” said Fabrice Bregier, president and chief executive officer of the plane maker.

The new centre combines the expertise of the two companies |to offer the highest standards of training for the growing flight-crew population in the region, Airbus says.

Airbus’s investment in this joint venture is another example of its commitment to take its support services closer to customers around the world, and especially in the key growth markets, Bregier said.

Goh Choon Phong, CEO of SIA, said the new facility provided exceptional training on state-of-the-art equipment, ensuring that it is a true centre of excellence in the region. 

“With hundreds more Airbus aircraft on firm order by the region’s airlines, we are confident that AATC will go from strength to strength,” he said.

AATC began operations a year ago and prior to the opening of the new centre has been offering courses out of temporary facilities at the Singapore Airlines Training Centre near Changi Airport. 

All operations are gradually being transferred to the new centre, located at Seletar Aerospace Park. 

Instructors have initially been drawn from Airbus and SIA, with additional recruitment ongoing. 

Seventeen airlines from the region including Bangkok Airways have signed up to use AATC.

Bloomberg has reported that more than two decades of economic growth in the region have spawned a dozen airlines across Asia, which Airbus and Boeing Co both forecast will become the world’s largest travel and aerospace market in two decades. 

Asia-Pacific airlines will need 226,000 new pilots by 2034, making up 41 per cent of the global figure, according to Boeing’s latest forecast. Asia’s travel boom is leaving several airlines desperately short of pilots. The region is transporting 100 million new passengers every year. 

Led by Asia, the global number of air travellers is expected to double to 7 billion by 2034, according to the International Air Transport Association.